PARAGON

  Hisui Incursion Arc [15]

  Chapter 67 : Source

  There was no way to tell how close or far they were to their goal, or if their endless trekking was actually getting them closer to it. Shieldon led them through spiky caverns, claustrophobic tunnels, and caves filled with turbid water, and they had no choice but to follow him without argument.

  They only had so much food on hand, about a month’s worth if they started rationing, but Laventon hadn’t made that call yet. For now, it seemed, his priority was to keep any seeds of anxiety unsown, especially in the younger members of their party. The original journey through these caves was set to last a week but there was no telling how far along that timeline they were now.

  Nonetheless, Ash had noticed the Professor continuing his practice of harvesting resources from the ground as they walked, though this time, his pick-ups included a certain cave moss that grew in tangled bunches near water and tan mushrooms that seemed to grow in the recesses between cracks in the rock.

  Now that their way forward was set in stone and Unown was well and truly behind them, on their third day within the foothills, Ash approached Laventon during one of their rest stops. As it happened, the Professor was working on the exact topic of discussion Ash had in mind.

  Laventon saw him approaching and smiled, immediately shifting over so Ash could sit beside him. “Right, I did offer,” he said.

  He clutched an apricorn in one hand and a thin chisel in another. “The first step to creating a pokéball is to split the apricorn into two symmetrical halves. This is deceptively difficult. The outer shell is so hard most pokémon don’t even bother trying to reach the sweet innards until they’re slightly spoiled and the shell is softer.” He rotated the apricorn in his hand, trying to get the best grip. Then he held up his chisel so Ash could see. “This chisel is made of black tumblestone, a harder variant of the typical tumblestone. Sharpened well and in the hands of a dexterous craftsman, this chisel can crack an apricorn’s outer layer.”

  Ash leaned over, trying to get the best view. “Hey, Pikachu,” he eventually said, and the mouse scampered over. “Can we get some light?”

  The stripes on Pikachu’s back glowed and he crept closer to Laventon, angling himself to illuminate the Professor’s workspace.

  “Thank you. Now, then…” Laventon pressed his chisel into the apricorn’s surface.

  Ash squinted to get a closer look.

  “The craftsmen of the Supply Corps can split an apricorn perfectly with a well-placed whack from a small mallet on the chisel’s top, but unfortunately, I’m not that good. Instead, I have to painstakingly trace around the apricorn’s center and carefully carve them apart… A single mistake could ruin the entire thing…” His eyebrows and cheeks twitched as he worked but his hands were perfectly steady.

  “How long does it take you to make one of these?” Ash asked, eyes still glued to the apricorn.

  Laventon rotated the apricorn. “If I work on it everyday…a week or two, depending on the type. But the experts can finish several in a day.”

  “The type?”

  “Ah, yes. We have several different types of pokéballs which each specialize in catching different kinds of pokémon. Beyond the standard pokéball, there are Feather Balls which are good at catching fast pokémon and Heavy Balls which are good at catching bigger ones. Depending on what materials one has on hand, those pokéballs can be modified further to make them more resistant to catch failure.”

  “Amazing,” Ash muttered. Besides the craftsmanship required to create a single pokéball, Ash was impressed at just how much the Hisuians had managed to innovate the process as well. For a land with inhabitants that had such friction with pokémon, they were surprisingly good at coming up with ways of capturing them.

  As Laventon’s chisel reached its starting point again, Laventon relaxed and set the apricorn and chisel aside. “I’ve traced out the split in the center so now I can finish the rest later. But in the meantime, check this out.” He dug around in his bag for a bit before producing several items.

  First, he held up a thin ring of metal with a button embedded in one side and a hinge directly opposite it. “This piece is just made of iron. It holds the two halves together. And of course, you need this,” he said, clicking the button a few times.”

  “That looks pretty fragile,” Ash said. He didn’t even want to ask to get a closer look at it, for fear of accidentally breaking it. Especially with how complex the metalwork looked, there was no way they could replace it in the wild.

  “It’s fairly sturdy, but they are in high demand since every pokéball requires one, no matter the type.”

  Surprisingly, he handed the ring to Pikachu for him to get a closer look, and Pikachu turned it in his paws. He glanced up at Ash, and upon seeing how badly his master wanted to see it, he tossed it back into Laventon’s bag. Ash rolled his eyes.

  “Here’re one of the tumblestones I scavenged earlier,” Laventon said, offering Ash the smooth brown stone. “These require a bit of processing before they are added to the pokéball. By grounding them to dust, we can access the energy stored within, which makes reducing a pokémon’s size possible. That energy interacts with the button on the ring, which has a flint attached to it.”

  “Flint? Like for a fire?”

  “Exactly. The spark created by the flint ignites the tumblestone’s energy.”

  Ash frowned. “I wonder if it has anything to do with Aura.”

  Laventon looked over at Riley, who was sitting close enough to overhear their conversation. The Guardian looked up from his meal and smiled, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about that.”

  “And unfortunately, we don’t know either,” Laventon said. “All we know is that it works. The pokéball originates in Kanto so I imagine you may find an answer there. But honestly, I’d think you’d have the answer, being from so far in the future.”

  “Oh, the people of our time certainly know the answer. It’s just, we don’t,” Riley grinned.

  Pikachu chuckled in embarrassment, his ears flattening against his head.

  “Here, you can have one of my extra chisels,” Laventon told Ash after lunch. “Take an apricorn too. Keep a steady hand and work slowly. This first step is the hardest part of pokéball creation.”

  Ash took each of the items and packed them for later, being careful to situate them so they wouldn’t get damaged as he walked.

  “Anything on that weird energy you’re feeling?” Ash asked Riley once they’d begun walking again.

  The cave they were walking through now was littered with boulders, sunk into the ground. The flatness of the cavern and the quiet in the air almost made it seem like some sort of Onix graveyard or something, but Riley and Sabrina had both assured them that it was safe to cross. Every now and then, they had to slide between the narrow gaps between two boulders, or climb over if no such gap existed. The floor sloped upward, an encouraging sign that they seemed to be getting closer to their goal.

  “Nothing concrete,” Riley answered. “I’ve done a bit of preliminary probing and nothing stands out yet. Mount Coronet is supposed to be one of the oldest places in the world so lingering energy isn’t all that surprising. That’s my running theory on what it is for now, but even still, it feels a bit too potent for that to be the case.”

  “The structure at the top of the mountain,” Ash said. “The one we call Spear Pillar in the present day. It’s called the Temple of Sinnoh in this time period, right? Do you know when exactly the Temple was built? Maybe the Temple’s construction has something to do with it.”

  “The origins of Spear Pillar are still hotly contested to the present day. Some believe it was created by Arceus at the beginning of everything, some believe humans worked together with pokémon to build it several thousand years ago from today. And some still believe it has little significance at all, being merely a simple site of worship for some ancient people.”

  “And what do you believe?”

  Ash climbed up onto a short boulder and offered a hand to Riley. The Guardian took it and heaved himself up.

  “Well, I am a Guardian so I do believe that the Temple of Sinnoh and Arceus are inextricably tied,” Riley said, jumping down the other side of the boulder. “I’d go further than my peers, though. I believe Spear Pillar has even greater significance than we give it credit for. The consensus among the Guardians is that Spear Pillar contains an interdimensional path that leads to the Hall of Origin, Arceus’ personal domain. After what happened with Team Galactic, I’d say that point is practically proven. However, walking through these caves over the past few days has made me skeptical that the peak is all we should be concerned with.”

  Pikachu cocked his head on Ash’s shoulder, and his master mimicked him a moment later. “Are you saying all of Mount Coronet is part of Spear Pillar?”

  Riley narrowed his eyes. “I wonder if that’s the proper way to say it. Should it be the other way around? That Spear Pillar is actually part of Mount Coronet? Ultimately, I think what’s important is that we don’t limit our focus to the Temple alone. Even if it leads to the Hall of Origin, the mountain beneath it holds significance as well. Later, I’d like to perform a few other, more in-depth spells to try and decipher the true nature of this anomaly.”

  “Could just do it now,” Ash said, peeking ahead. Yura and Shieldon marched proudly at the front as always, with Sabrina close behind as she watched over Rei and Akari. “Seems like we’ll be in this cavern for a while. Or do you need to really concentrate?”

  “There’s that, but also I’m busy right now.”

  Ash looked over and frowned. “Busy?”

  Riley held out his hand and azure azure brightened beneath his skin and bled from his eyes. “Indeed. I’m doing a bit of training myself.”

  “Don’t want me to overtake you, huh?”

  “Oh, you’ve long since overtaken me. No, it’s a similar sort of training but qualitatively different.” Riley let his Aura fade and lowered his arm. “Remind me how much you know about Aura.”

  Ash scratched the back of his head. “Um, well, Sir Aaron told me a bit more about it while I was training with him. Before, I thought it was just a special energy used by the Guardians and certain pokémon like Lucario, but he told me that every pokémon has the potential to change the quality of their attacks by using Aura. With Aura, they can increase the size of their attacks, or make using certain attacks easier or even just possible, depending on the environment.”

  Riley nodded. “That’s exactly right. Aura is essentially the lifeforce of all pokémon. Some humans are blessed with it as well, but Aura is an energy that descends from Arceus, and makes its way into every pokémon, big or small. It is said that Aura is what separates pokémon from animals.”

  That was probably why pokémon were so much tougher than animals, Ash surmised. It was almost as if the power of Aura made pokémon designed specifically for battle. War, Ash thought, remembering what Sir Aaron had said about the war that began even before the Age of Carnage.

  Ancient Guardian texts tell of a war between pokémon that predates all life on this planet. It was said the pokémon defeated in that war fell to Earth, continuing to enact pointless violence against one another.

  Is Aura what remains in pokémon after they ‘fall to Earth?’ Ash wondered.

  “Put another way,” Riley continued, “Aura is the source of all pokémon attacks. Every pokémon wields Aura, whether it’s to conjure some great blast, or just to spit out a Water Gun or an Ember.” Riley held up his hand again and summoned a small Aura Sphere. “And yet, even though the weakest of pokémon can effortlessly transmute their Aura into elemental attacks of their type, even the strongest Guardians are only capable of wielding Aura in its raw form.”

  That was strange, now that Ash thought of it. If Aura was the basis for all pokémon attacks, then once they reached a certain level, even the Guardians should’ve been able to use specific elemental attacks. Yet, he’d never seen one do that.

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  “So to get back to my training, I am analyzing my own Aura in the hopes that one day, I’ll be able to transmute it into a specific type, just like a pokémon can.”

  Ash raised a brow. “Didn’t you say even the strongest Guardians can’t do that?”

  “I certainly did.”

  “Even Sir Aaron only used Aura in its basic form, from what I saw.”

  “Indeed.”

  Ash gawked at him, and the Guardian slowly met his gaze. “So, you mean…?”

  “Yes.” A resolute look hardened on Riley’s face. “I intend to be the first Guardian to transmute my Aura into one of the eighteen elemental types.”

  Ash was speechless. “But…why?”

  Their footsteps echoed through the cavern as they walked, and Riley stayed silent for a bit.

  “The journey I’m on… The journey we’re on… It’s a path no one has ever walked before. Or rather, it’s a path many have walked, but none have reached the end in all of human history.” He turned to Ash. “The unity of Arceus’ Plates within the Origin Child… It should be impossible. Yet that is the task that lies before us. So, I figure, if we’re aiming for one impossible task, what’s one more on the list?”

  He said it so nonchalantly, but Ash began to feel his own determination burning within him. He’d never paid much mind to whether something was possible or impossible, but hearing someone else verbalizing it certainly put things into perspective, especially since Riley intended to join him on the journey. “Riley…”

  “Really, I just want to get stronger, like you. Like anyone. And this is the method I’ve selected to achieve that goal. I’ve no doubt we’ll be running into more fearsome opponents as we continue forth. I can’t be slacking on my training either.”

  Ash grinned and held a fist out toward Riley. “Glad to hear it! Let me know if there’s anything we can help with!” Pikachu cheered, offering his support as well.

  Riley bumped his fist. “The less guidance you need from me, the more time I can put toward my own training. That said…” He grabbed Ash’s neck and his fingertips shined azure. “Let’s up the output a little, it feels like you’re getting too comfortable at this level.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ash groaned, allowing more electricity to enter his system. Pikachu shuddered on his shoulder and grinned, his cheeks crackling as he felt his master’s power increase.

  The rest of the day was uneventful. Now that Rei and Akari had both spent a day protecting the group by themselves, Sabrina had commanded both of them to limit themselves to using a singular pokémon of her choosing, Shellos for Rei and Staravia for Akari. It wasn’t lost on Ash that those were their team members who’d perform the worst in an underground setting, and there had been a few close calls that Sabrina had ultimately had to handle herself.

  A group of Bronzor seemed to believe they’d be able to get the upper hand with their superior numbers, and they were right, until Sabrina buried them all with a flick of her wrist. Then, just before they stopped for dinner, Shieldon stepped on a hulking Machamp who’d been napping under a blanket of gravel, and though Rei and Akari tried to fight it off, it was simply too bulky. Just before it could slam Rei’s head into the cave wall, Sabrina snatched its body in a psychic hold and proceeded to void the contents of its stomach with an invisible punch that sent it into a different sort of sleep.

  Although he felt a bit embarrassed to admit it, Ash was surprised at how well the training was coming along. He’d assumed Sabrina would’ve been too shy to take it as seriously as Rei and Akari were, and at the beginning that was kind of true. But she was being surprisingly assertive as their master, and her methods were yielding results. It was different from what he may have come up with if they had asked him instead, but Sabrina seemed particularly attuned to the unique circumstances of battling in Hisui, and had digested the personalities of each of their pokémon remarkably quickly.

  Even during dinner, Ash watched from the other side of the campfire as she reviewed their performances for the day, giving each of them specific pointers on where to improve.

  But on Ash’s end, he couldn’t help but wonder where all the Alpha Pokémon were. They’d been in these caves for half a week, but they still had yet to encounter one. Surely they weren’t so lucky that there weren’t any nearby. All day as they walked, Ash had expected a giant rock-type to smash through the wall and attack him, but none had.

  Now that three days had elapsed and they still hadn’t reared their heads, Ash found himself quite anxious in the quiet dark once it was his turn for watch duty. The quiet roared in his ears as he wondered which second that passed by would have its silence broken.

  Yet, the silence remained intact. And once his shift was over, he shook Sabrina awake. The psychic met his gaze once she was up, and immediately he could tell that she realized something was bothering him. But before she could ask about it, he swept past her and buried himself in his bedroll.

  In the dead of night, Sabrina released Decidueye.

  The monstrous bird materialized into the darkness and froze. Sabrina could immediately feel his confusion. Ash and the others lay asleep at his feet, while Sabrina sat behind him, leaned against the cave wall wrapped in a blanket. The leaves of his coat shook softly as he slowly turned to study his surroundings. Eventually, he’d turned enough to notice Sabrina, and his temper flared.

  Can you hear me? Sabrina asked silently, her eyes boring into Decidueye.

  Decidueye didn’t react, instead turning back toward Ash. Since Sabrina was sitting behind him, there was nothing between him and the Platebearer. He peeked over his shoulder back at Sabrina, his eyes gleaming with homicidal intent.

  “If you try it, I’ll hurt you,” Sabrina said aloud, her voice barely above a whisper. In the silence, it sounded like a shout, but there was no malice in her words. It wasn’t even a warning. It was just a statement of fact. “You’re not strong enough to beat him,” she continued. It seemed she couldn't speak to him telepathically yet. It was a given with psychic-types, but for non-psychic-types, it took time to attune them to her telepathy. It’d been some time after Haunter joined her before she could speak to him silently. “If you can’t beat me, you definitely can’t beat him.”

  Surprisingly, Decidueye seemed to hesitate, and his eyes narrowed. Threat wafted off of him in a hot wave, his anger transmitting straight into Sabrina’s consciousness, but she ignored it. His attempts at intimidating her were as toothless as any potential attack on Ash.

  “Why do you want his power?” Sabrina asked. “What would you do with it?”

  With some finesse, Decidueye spun on his foot and turned to fully face Sabrina. Stepping carefully through the slumbering others, he approached Sabrina, his towering shadow darkening the already dim cave.

  Her eyes hadn’t moved since he did, and she continued to stare ahead even as Decidueye planted himself right in front of her.

  Her breathing remained calm.

  Her skin didn’t turn clammy.

  And even as Decidueye leaned over and brought his beaked face right in front of hers, Sabrina didn’t recoil even an inch.

  She was in mortal danger.

  Decidueye’s fist was as big as her entire torso, and he rested it against her stomach. Even though he’d barely touched it, it felt like an iron boulder being pressed against her. His muscles were taut and burning.

  If she was going to protect herself, she should’ve done it before he’d gotten so close. Now, he could easily kill her before she even had a chance to do anything.

  But…

  Decidueye had already sacrificed his pride to help her against Unown. It was time for her to do the same.

  His fist opened and he pressed his hand against her, trapping her up against the wall. The cragged wall dug into her back painfully, and this time, her face did wrinkle as he increased his force. Her breathing came in quick bursts. All it would take was a flex of his muscles, and she’d splat against the wall.

  “What…do you want?” Sabrina bit out, forcing herself to meet his gaze.

  As expected, he was glaring at her. But at least the question had halted him from pushing any further.

  The rage within Decidueye felt contained, like a cup of water filled to the brim. He would not get any angrier than he was now. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get more angry. He was simply satisfied now. He had the source of his wounded pride in the literal palm of his hand.

  “You’re drawn to the Plate without even knowing why,” Sabrina said. “That’s how it is, right? It’s as natural as eating or breathing.”

  Decidueye’s muscles tightened and the message was clear. Stop acting like you know me and get to the point.

  “If you killed Ash, I’d have to kill you. I’d have to,” Sabrina said flatly. “Give up on killing him. You can’t, but even if you could, you can’t.”

  Decidueye snorted in indignation.

  “You want power, but you don’t know why.” Sabrina’s eyes began to glow, shining emerald light on Decidueye’s face. “I have power, and I don’t know why.”

  Since his demeanor didn’t change, Sabrina took it as a sign to continue.

  “Ash isn’t the only one with power. You should know that. It’s how we met.”

  Before Decidueye could react to that statement, Sabrina raised her arm and touched his face. His leaves were rough and hard, like she was grasping a handful of dragon scales, but she could feel the heat from his body on her fingertips.

  “You don’t know this, but we’re from the future. Ash, Riley, and me.”

  Decidueye’s eyes narrowed, and Sabrina could tell he needed to process that information.

  “You’re my pokémon, but I won’t force you to return to the future with me. When this is all over, we will be going home. We’ll never see Hisui again, and if you stay with me, neither will you. It’s up to you if you want to let me…let us slip through your fingers.” Sabrina’s eyes flared. “You’ll never see power like this again.”

  In his moment of hesitation, Sabrina seized Decidueye in her psychic grip and forced him back in a flurry and flash of emerald leaves. He skidded to a halt, catching himself before he could fall over. Hunkering down, he glared at Sabrina.

  “Good night, Decidueye.”

  She’d said what she needed to say. Before he could wake the others, Sabrina recalled him, his form shrinking into nothing as the pokéball swallowed him once more. The cavern fell silent again.

  He could ponder her words within his pokéball.

  Now, Sabrina’s biggest worry was falling asleep on watch duty. Her eyelids felt heavy. It was really too bad Decidueye wasn’t more friendly with her. She would’ve liked his company.

  She stared across the darkness at Ash’s slumbering form, wondering what would’ve happened if Decidueye had actually attacked him. He looked so peaceful now as his body rose and fell with each breath. She’d sensed something off from him as they’d switched off, but Ash, more than most, was an enigma to her. She couldn’t wrap her head around his depthless love for pokémon, his everlasting drive toward the pinnacle of being a pokémon trainer, or his insane quest for the legendary Plates of Arceus.

  She could not relate to any of it.

  Not even a little.

  Her face scrunched up and she was chewing on her fingernail before she realized it.

  So, why?

  Why, then…?

  Why can I not stop thinking about him??

  As it happened, Ash’s anxieties were finally assuaged two days later when they spotted a gigantic Golem the size of a house stomping around a large cavern whose walls and floor were crusted in a thin, dirty layer of ice.

  As they crossed the cavern on a narrow passage above the Golem, it’d been Shieldon who’d frozen in his tracks and nodded toward the humongous boulder sitting in the corner of the cave, frost accumulated on its surface. But it wasn’t until the thing started moving that they realized why Shieldon wasn’t letting them go any further.

  It shattered the ice at its feet with every hulking step and it tore handfuls of rock from the wall as if it was made of wet paper, throwing the rock back into its mouth before crunching it into nothing. However, it hadn’t seemed to notice it had company.

  “What do you think, Pikachu?” Ash whispered, crouching down. “Wanna give it a go?”

  Pikachu shook his head, his ears flopping about comically.

  “C’mon. A little Three Heavenly Bolts action? I’m sure that’d be plenty—“

  “I’d advise against it, Ash,” Riley said. “Even if you can bypass its ground-type, it’s not a risk we need to take if it hasn’t noticed us. Look.” He pointed down at the other end of the passage where another cave entrance led away to a different part of the mountain. “All we have to do is pass through.”

  “I agree with Riley,” Laventon said in a hushed shout.

  Ash deflated, glancing to Rei and Akari for support. “Guys?”

  “Uhhhhhhh,” Rei said, his eyes wide.

  Akari shook her head so fast it looked like she was vibrating.

  “That’s already more than half of us!” Yura whisper-yelled from the front.

  “Sabrina?” Ash asked, turning to her.

  Her brows were knit and she glanced down at the Golem several times, as if actually considering it. But, eventually she fixed Ash with an apologetic stare. “Let’s not.”

  With Ash out-ruled six to one, they continued on their way through the cavern as quietly as they could, eventually passing into another tunnel and leaving the Golem far behind.

  Once they were plenty far enough away from Golem’s cavern, Laventon spoke. “I wonder why that Golem didn’t realize you were there, despite being so close,” he mused, glancing at Ash. “If the Alpha Pokémon are attracted to the Plates of Arceus, then surely it should have realized one was right above its head.”

  Ash frowned, scratching his head. “Hmmm, I’m not sure. That is a bit strange.”

  “Maybe it’s because Golem’s a ground-type, so he doesn’t care about the Electric Plate,” Rei suggested.

  “But if that were true, shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Akari said. “It’d make more sense if it was an electric-type ignoring the Ground Plate.”

  Ash shrugged. “I don’t know either way.”

  “It does make one wonder how Decidueye knew to attack the Sanctuary when he did,” Riley said, stroking his chin. “Was it just coincidence, and he only realized Ash had a Plate once he saw him?”

  “Even if Decidueye only happened to come across Ash and his Electric Plate by coincidence, it seems clear that the Unown, at the very least, directly targeted Ash,” Laventon said. “It’s not like Unown saw him from a distance. It appeared right next to us.”

  It was easy to chalk Golem’s indifference up to good luck, but Ash had to admit it was strange. Rapidash also hadn’t sensed him until they attacked. Was it just a difference in power level? Between the four Alpha Pokémon, Decidueye and Unown were unquestionably the stronger two; if Decidueye could defeat the fire-type Rapidash with relative ease, Golem would’ve likely been a cinch.

  Ash felt his anxiety creeping back due to the uncertainty.

  “Hey!” Yura shouted, whipping around to face the group. A shining smile stretched across her face. “Look!”

  As Ash rounded the slight bend in the tunnel, a freezing draft blew against his face, followed by a dusting of cold. He narrowed his eyes instinctively. Ice crunched under his feet and he stopped in place.

  Snow blew across a stark white vista of hills and burly evergreens dead ahead.

  The wind of the outside brushed Ash’s face and he could feel like cheeks reddening from the temperature. He smiled, his breath condensing in front of him.

  They’d found their way out.

  And it’d taken less time than they initially estimated, five days compared to seven.

  Shieldon grunted, completely unamused that his life-saving efforts had led him into subzero temperatures.

  Next — Chapter 68 : Expedition’s End